For rock legends Fleetwood Mac, it's 'til death do us part

Eric Kelsey

4 Min Read

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Do not call it a comeback and don’t even think of it as a farewell tour.

After more than four decades making music and a 2010 tour, Fleetwood Mac will hit the road again next year. But it won’t be its last tour, singer Stevie Nicks vowed, dismissing any notion that the band could be packing away their instruments in the near future.

“It’s never going to be a final tour until we drop dead,” Nicks told Reuters. “There’s no reason for this to end as long as everyone is in good shape and takes care of themselves.”

The 34-city tour with dates in the United States and Canada will begin on April 4 in Columbus, Ohio, and finish up on June 12 in Detroit.

The tour coincides with the 35th anniversary of the blockbuster 1977 album, “Rumours,” which landed the group four hit singles and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. The album will be reissued with unreleased studio and live recordings, Fleetwood Mac said.

After frequent changes to the lineup since the band formed in London in 1967, the 2013 tour will feature Nicks, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, and founding members Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass.

Touring again is “a big deal,” said Nicks, 64, who is known for her floor-length blonde hair and frilly outfits.

“I don’t want a Fleetwood Mac tour every year or year and a half. That’s why people get so excited. ... All of a sudden the world is on edge and that’s what gets you out there.”

For Nicks, who recently finished a two-year solo tour promoting her 2011 album “In Your Dreams,” making music and being on the road is her life.

“If you never stop, you don’t lose your energy,” the “Landslide” singer said of keeping pace with a demanding tour schedule when each band member is into their 60s. “Even when we stop, everybody is still doing a lot of stuff.”

‘EVERYBODY IS NERVOUS’

Like Nicks, Buckingham has his own solo career, and Fleetwood has a restaurant in Hawaii and a U.S. vineyard as well as his own music gigs.

Fleetwood and McVie are both founding members of the band, and Buckingham and Nicks joined the group in 1974.

Singer and songwriter Christine McVie, who wrote the big hit “Don’t Stop” that was on “Rumours,” joined the band in the early 1970s after marrying John McVie, but retired from touring after the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. She still contributes on occasion to studio efforts.

Although the band will not kick off the tour until April, Nicks said the anxiety-filled grind begins months before during rehearsals when band members hammer out which songs to play.

Of the 22 songs Fleetwood Mac will play during a concert, 11 will be hits, such as “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop” and “Hold Me,” Nicks said.

For herself, it is a daily routine of vocal exercises and primping that can take hours.

“It’s overwhelming in a good way, but it’s still overwhelming,” Nicks said of the process. “By the third day (of rehearsals) you start to calm down and get into your role. At first, everybody is nervous and not knowing what they’ll do.”

But a decade removed from their last studio album “Say You Will,” Nicks admits it may be time for another Fleetwood Mac release, adding that she and Buckingham had spent time writing songs together recently.

“Personally, I think we feel better than before,” Nicks said. “We’re not doing drugs and stuff like that ... You don’t know what you’ll do when you’re not doing this.”